coln and Concord. There is a tradition that Thoreau assisted him in constructing the hut; Mr. Channing is authority for the statement that Thoreau visited Wheeler there for six weeks. It is sure that this and other examples of the time, in retirement for study and economy, greatly influenced Thoreau in fostering his desire for a temporary home by the pond, in the midst of nature's peaceful beauty.
Before Walden was chosen, he wavered for a time after he had determined to build a lodge somewhere. In a letter recently seen, is this reference under date of 1841,—"I am sorry for Mr. Henry's disappointment about his farm." Doubtless this is the incident told in breezy style in the early chapters of "Walden,"—the effort to purchase the Hollowell farm on the road to Nine Acre Corner, with its gray, weather-beaten building, its red maple grove, and its rabbit-knawed apple-trees. With semi-satiric detail he explained;—"The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife,—every man has such a wife,—changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he offered me ten
